There were few scopes setup, as most were writing off the night (there actually was some good viewing late night to the north)... I keep my scope setup, and was sharing it with a group of folks when a Lincoln club member's quadcopter came flying over for a look (at 0:16)... a very cool video of the observing field.

2014 will go down as one of the best NSP's I've attended. During the day, my wife and I kayaked Merritt Reservoir backwaters, tubed the Niobrara, biked the Cowboy Trail, saw the Badlands, drove the Fort Niobrara wild life loop, and more... it's a great vacation experience, even if you were to get clouded out.

Not too bad, although there were times when they got a little vicious. We had mostly cloudy skies with a spectacular thunderstorm light show for the NSP Public night, so we didn't have much to show anybody. I made it home without incident but am still working on getting the images off the camera. In total, we had three clear nights, three partly cloudy nights, and one cloudy night for the week. Clear skies to you.

Much better year than last year. Saturday night, Sunday night, and Thursday night were all outstanding. Thursday night my grandson logged 20 Messier's in my 4" refractor using a red dot finder and star hopping. He was pretty excited. Also on Thursday night/Friday morning David showed me the Zodiacal light and Gegenschein. The entire Zodiacal band could easily be traced from the triangular shaped Zodiacal light all the way to the Gegenschein in Capricorn. Very cool! Once it was pointed out to me it was actually quite obvious. I didn't expect the Gegenschein to be so big or so obvious. Thanks Dave, That was my favorite observation of the week. It's funny how the darker the skies are the easier it is to see things that keep the sky from getting dark(er). Even on the partly cloudy nights it was possible to get in a lot of observing. I observed from dusk to dawn on one of the cloudy nights but all the observing had to be done in the northern half of the sky. That's not all bad though since a ton of stuff is in Cassiopeia, Perseus, etc.

I took readings with my SQM-L on three different nights last week. For my readings I took an average of three readings at zenith and three each pointed at N,S,E, & W about 45º above the horizon for a total of 15 readings. The readings to the south and at zenith were pretty much pointed straight at the Milky Way. The readings were:

Personally I had a great time at NSP. Thanks for posting the video...I'll keep that on file for the memories. I saw the zodiacal light, too, but wasn't sure what it was at first... I thought it was the dawn coming up.

I managed to complete the Messier challenge list and my club's August challenge list of objects.

I had a great time and finally got to look through some really large scopes. That 24 Starmaster Erik had was very impressive, the level of detail in M51 and M101 was much more than I was expecting. I used my 11" sct on the good nights and binoculars on the partly cloudy nights and that worked well. Those sucker holes can't mess you much when you are using binoculars. The showers were great, best I have seen outside of the Utah State parks and the presentations on Wednesday were really good. I was surprised that only one vendor was present, I was kind of looking forward to seeing some of the people I buy from. The biggest negatives for me were those little cactus plants all over the place, I am still pulling thorns out of my shoes from those, and the mosquitoes. I had various non-deet products and some15% deet with me and none of it worked. I had to go buy some 30% deet to kept them away. Luckily they were mainly out at twilight. Next time I am camping further from the water.

NSP'14 was my first major star party and I had a great time. Spent all of my observing time working on the Herschel400 observing list - I made great progress but at the expense of visiting other people's scopes, Dob Row, etc. Already planning to be there next year. Ken and Jim, I got my password reset so I am now de-lurking on CN!!

NSP'14 was my first major star party and I had a great time. Spent all of my observing time working on the Herschel400 observing list - I made great progress but at the expense of visiting other people's scopes, Dob Row, etc. Already planning to be there next year. Ken and Jim, I got my password reset so I am now de-lurking on CN!!

I'm working on finding a few people willing to split the expense of a rental RV so that I can pursue some targets like you did. I liked your approach and ability to stay for the week. Having a rig with the comforts of home would make the long daytimes go faster.

Of the 5 MAS members there last week, 2 shared a pop-up camper, 2 slept in tents and 1 slept in his car all week. My biggest problem with the tent is getting baked out at 8am by the sun. That is my first challenge to solve for next year. You might want to get online with the MAS website, and our "road trip" forum would be the place to connect for folks attending regional star parties.